a boy come from china

**Mario F.** · 11-03-2009

So you basically think you are a parasite and you'd be better of not being born.

So, why am I not talking to a corpse yet?

**cyberfish** · 11-03-2009

A purely hypothetical question:

If you are the government of a country of 11 people, 1 rich 10 starving. If you don't do anything, the 10 starving people will die.

Or you can kill the rich person and distribute the wealth to the 10 people (so they won't die). Is that ethical?

Is killing by doing nothing killing, too?

**maxorator** · 11-04-2009

Originally Posted by cyberfish

A purely hypothetical question:

If you are the government of a country of 11 people, 1 rich 10 starving. If you don't do anything, the 10 starving people will die.

Or you can kill the rich person and distribute the wealth to the 10 people (so they won't die). Is that ethical?

Is killing by doing nothing killing, too?

Here you see the difference between communism and democracy. Communists would kill the rich guy (who probably earned his wealth) and distribute it among the 10 starving people. In democracy the government would set a tax which makes the rich guy pay a lot more, and then distributes the money between the 10 people as a living allowance. The only difference is that the communists would have murdered an innocent person.

**Neo1** · 11-04-2009

Originally Posted by maxorator

Here you see the difference between communism and democracy. Communists would kill the rich guy (who probably earned his wealth) and distribute it among the 10 starving people. In democracy the government would set a tax which makes the rich guy pay a lot more, and then distributes the money between the 10 people as a living allowance. The only difference is that the communists would have murdered an innocent person.

Nonsense!

Communism is an ideology, democracy is a political system, they are not comparable in that sense! If you want to compare communism, compare it to capitalism, where the rich guy gets to keep the money and the other 10 dies from starvation, or, as some like to call it, "free market economy".

Besides, what you describe here is not what Karl Marx envisioned.

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

"Pure communism" in the Marxian sense refers to a classless, stateless and oppression-free society where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made democratically, allowing every member of society to participate in the decision-making process in both the political and economic spheres of life.

**maxorator** · 11-04-2009

Originally Posted by Neo1

Nonsense!

Communism is an ideology, democracy is a political system, they are not comparable in that sense! If you want to compare communism, compare it to capitalism, where the rich guy gets to keep the money and the other 10 dies from starvation, or, as some like to call it, "free market economy".

Besides, what you describe here is not what Karl Marx envisioned.

I'm sorry. I just forgot to mention that what I described is a side effect of using the good-in-theory communism in real life. And don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, Estonia was occupied by the USSR for 50 years. And what we learned during that period is that communism doesn't work with democracy. Therefore communism can be opposed to democracy.

**Neo1** · 11-04-2009

Originally Posted by maxorator

I'm sorry. I just forgot to mention that what I described is a side effect of using the good-in-theory communism in real life. And don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, Estonia was occupied by the USSR for 50 years. And what we learned during that period is that communism doesn't work with democracy.

The ideas of communism have little or nothing to do with the fascist rule of the USSR and Stalin.

Therefore stalinism can be opposed to democracy.

fixed.

**mike_g** · 11-03-2009

And some characters are semasiography, e.g, 好(good), it is formed by 女(daughter) and 子(son), Chinese people believe that a family gets both a daughter and a son is a good thing.

Hey dude Sorry, I missed your last post. I'd guess thats like yin and yang or something right?

So you basically think you are a parasite and you'd be better of not being born.

I'm fine as I am. I have a well paid job so will leech for the time being. If I get bored or reach 50 then maybe I'll die.

f you are the government of a country of 11 people, 1 rich 10 starving. If you don't do anything, the 10 starving people will die.

Or you can kill the rich person and distribute the wealth to the 10 people (so they won't die). Is that ethical?

Surely it would be better to distribute the wealth 11 ways?

**cyberfish** · 11-03-2009

Originally Posted by mike_g

Surely it would be better to distribute the wealth 11 ways?

haha, what if the rich guy defends his wealth with his life, and to take it away, you have to kill him?

Or, for whatever other reason, you only have those 2 options?

**mike_g** · 11-03-2009

Well, if i was starving and had to I guess I'd kill him I guess I would. But I don't like to have to make those kind of decisions in general

**cyberfish** · 11-03-2009

Me neither. I feel there is something fundamentally wrong about how we classify things as ethical and unethical, but I'm not sure what. Any philosopher here?

**whiteflags** · 11-04-2009

Work for the rich dude, problem solved.

**Akkernight** · 11-04-2009

Originally Posted by whiteflags

Work for the rich dude, problem solved.

Seconded.

**cyberfish** · 11-04-2009

And the problem with capitalism is that it will somehow push people into the 2 extrema. Some people will get really rich, some people will starve to death. Good or bad would depend on how you look at it. The average wealth would certainly go up (dead people don't count).

Heavy taxing is a compromise between the 2. If you tax 100%, you get communism. If you tax 0%, you get capitalism. If you tax 50%, you get Canada.

**anon** · 11-04-2009

Communists would kill the rich guy (who probably earned his wealth) and distribute it among the 10 top party members.

FTFY

Heavy taxing is a compromise between the 2. If you tax 100%, you get communism. If you tax 0%, you get capitalism. If you tax 50%, you get Canada.

Part of the picture is probably what you spend the tax money on. I don't see a direct link between collecting taxes and stopping people from starving.